No place for...

In the pursuit of health and fitness, there is no place for...

Eliminating all fat from your diet.    If you eliminate all fat, you deprive your body of much needed nutrients.   What you really need to do is avoid saturated fat and trans fat.  That means read labels.

Polyunsaturated and monosaturated fats are the "good" fats and provide important nutrients and nutrition for your body.   Those are found mainly in nuts, vegetable oils, and fish.

No pain. No gain. Not really.  The reality of it is that if you hurt during your workout, you are probably doing something wrong.   Sure, it's OK for it to be difficult for you, just not painful.

One thing we all need to learn is the difference between post-exercise soreness that comes from either pushing our limits or trying something new and pain after exercising that might be an indication that you have injured something.   That's where a relationship with a physical therapist could be handy.

I would like to see a world in which everyone has a physical therapist.   You might talk about "my attorney" or "my accountant" but do you ever think about "my" physical therapist?  It's National Physical Therapy Month so I can get that plug in there.

But physical therapists have a great deal of expertise in musculoskeletal dysfunction and can offer techniques, exercises, and treatments that get at the cause of your problem.

Not having a primary care physician.  No excuse.  You need someone that knows you and knows your medical history.   Who greets you by name when they walk in the door because they know who you are. 

Not having colonoscopies and/or mammograms, if you are in any at-risk category.  I was asked recently if I thought we would ever  "cure" cancer.   I said, for a large part, we already had.

Statistics reveal that about 65% of Americans diagnosed with cancer survive past the crucial 5 year mark.  And for those that dismiss the quality of American medicine, that is significantly higher than the best to be found in the rest of the world. 

Take leukemia for example.   When I was a child, leukemia was  a death sentence.   There was no cure and hardly any treatment.   While it is still a horrible disease, over 50% of the people diagnosed with leukemia survive to 5 years.

With early detection and treatment, female breast cancer  has an 88.7% survival rate.  As for colon cancer, with early detection the survival rate is almost 100%. 

Stretch before exercise to prevent injury.   Nope.  After.   When your connective tissue is warmed up and more effectively stretched.

Focusing on one body part in a workout.  Oh, my, how many times have I heard that one.  Today is "my arm day."  Or "leg day."  The most effective workouts engage multiple body parts.  Every time.  Only if you want to make it bigger do you ever isolate your workout on one muscle.

Single rep max.  If you lift weights, you know what I'm talking about.   If you are preparing for a competition that will require you to perform a single repetition of a particular weight, it might be OK.  But it is generally a formula for injury.  And to what end?

You owe it to your body to investigate everything you do in the name of good health.  There are too many fads, bad ideas, and misinformation out there to do anything less. 

No Excuses!

I think I just got a new nickname.  I've never had many, other than always being called "joeblack" as though it were one word.  Growing up, other kids got to be Suzie and Ronnie and Jimmy but I was always joeblack. 

Such is the curse of those named single syllable first names and single syllable last names.  My son tried to fix it by always insisting on being called by his full first name, which is the multi-syllable Nicholas.   That seemed to work until sports, when coaches reduced his name to one word-nickblack.

The new nickname for me seems to be "Excuse Remover."  OK, maybe I should back up. 

I work in a fitness center.  Well, more specifically, I spend most of my work day at a physical therapy clinic (Total Rehabilitation-Cherokee) that is adjacent to a fitness center (BMH Wellness Center at Cherokee).  The two are under the same roof and are separated by only a counter and half wall.

In fact, my "desk" is a stool and a laptop computer that straddles the two.   So someone working out at Cherokee can simply step up to my "desk" and get a consult about their injury or their workout.   Happens all the time.

And since most folks know that health and fitness are very important to me (not to mention my day job), I get stopped regularly for advice on both.  I really don't mind.  I'm actually flattered when folks seek my opinion.  

The usual script is this: "I know you really don't want to be bothered with this, but can I ask you about my knee (or shoulder or exercise program)?"  But really, I don't mind at all.  

So today I was in a conversation just like that about a fellow that felt that he needed to lose 50 pounds.   He didn't really like to diet, his knees kept him from jogging, and his lifestyle might need some tweaks.

So I started removing his excuses.  I think I'm pretty good at it.

Dieting doesn't work for you?  Start by just eliminating fried foods from your diet.   Then maybe look at nothing to eat after dinner.   Reduce size portion and frequency of desserts.   That doesn't sound too hard, does it?

You don't have to make wholesale changes, just changes that you can stick with.   And do them consistently.   No excuses.   And start today.  Unless you've got a special meal scheduled, there's no reason to wait until tomorrow.

Can't run?  Bike, swim, or row.  Don't own a bike, a pool, or a boat?  The bike shop can help, several fitness centers have indoor pools, and rowing machines work great.   Then, you've always got my personal favorite-CrossFit workouts.   You can do those with little or no equipment.  The secret is to find something that you can stick with.

Can't find the time to exercise?   Do you really need a sit-down lunch every day?   Brown bag and exercise through lunch.  If you went to bed on time, you could  get up early enough to exercise before work/school/your normal day.   Don't wait until the end of the day--it's too easy to find...yep, you guessed it...EXCUSES!

Don't know what exercise would work for you or don't know the equipment?  Every gym in town has personal trainers that can help you with that.  Don't want to go to a gym?  Google up workout advice. 

I know a lot of people who are very healthy, that have found the formula that works for them.   Somewhere along the way, they stopped looking for excuses and started doing the right things.  Things that would lead them to better health and help them achieve their personal goals.

No excuses.

You Know You're a Grandparent if...

It doesn't seem possible, but I am firmly entrenched in grandad-dom.  Grandchild #6 is on the way.  My wife and I are convinced that being a grandparent is about the best gig going.

You heard about Camp Blackberry a couple of months and those that know me know that I've fully recovered from the nervous breakdowns that happened on Days 5 and 7 (just kidding).  

So last week I was putting away the dishes and just stopped and thought...we are really, honestly 100% full-fledged grandparents.   The evidence was in front of me (and constitutes the first line in the rest of the column).

You know you're a grandparent if...

Your "sippy" cups outnumber your wine glasses.

Your dining room has a high chair.  Probably recycled from your own children.  We actually have 2--one for indoors and a plastic one for outdoors.

You've tried to recycle Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony.   Barbie is still out there but I'm too much of a feminist to embrace that whole arena.

You know how to change a diaper but wonder where the pins go.   When I talk about cloth diapers, I get looks that let me know with absolute certainty that I'm a dinosaur.

Your vacation plans just might include something that begins with Disney.  Oh, and you know what the "Hot Dog Dance" is.

You're pretty sure that swimming means they don't need a bath but your own kids would still have been scrubbed to their last layer of epidermis.

Pizza now fulfills four major  food groups (but it sure didn't used to). I mean, think about it.  Grains (the crust), fruits (tomato paste--remember, tomatoes are fruits), meat (pepperoni), and vegetables (other toppings).  See?

You know you're a grandparent if it is now OK if they eat too much candy and stay up too late.  You're just going to send them home anyway.

You find cereal in the couch instead of change.  And your meals involve 2 menus, one for the adults and one for the children.  Ham and plum baby food?  I ain't goin' there!

You think James Dobson's The Strong Willed Child is funny.

You put plastic sheets back on your beds and get excited about a phone update on potty training.

You have no idea how to put in the car seat or fold up the stroller.  Your own kids probably just used an adult seatbelt and you yourself might have stood on the front bench seat between your parents, unrestrained.   Yeah, it is a lot better now.  A LOT better.

And finally, you know you're a grandparent when you realize that even though you thought you had all the answers when you were raising your own kids you now understand that parenting is mostly about not messing them up--more like gently re-arranging clouds--than it is about grand design.